Man your pumps, Wetherspoons are coming

yagan

From my time living in England they'd have a lot more day time drinkers, pension pints in the large post industrial cities and towns and that seemed to be the bedrock of the spoons model.

Aside from Dublin I don't think we ever had the kind all day trade aside from dockers and mart days.

They're also closing pubs in England as that cohort of pension pints age and die off.

Hotblack Desiato

Only takes one moany person in a group to make the whole group go elsewhere.

Same reason why non-smoking pubs never took off before the smoking ban. It only took one smoker in the group to make the whole group go elsewhere.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122891282#Comment_122891282

The daytime trade here, limited as it is, is all racing based.

When you don't have TVs, or only show news on said TVs; and don't have a physical bookies nearby, this trade doesn't darken your door.

Also, while drinkers of most products will change to something else; Guinness drinkers really only want Guinness; and a lot of the pensioner pint trade here would be dyed in the wool Guinness drinkers. Beamish was marketed as a cheap pint for that market, and didn't catch.

Hotblack Desiato

Funny how in the UK a pensioner going for a pint during the day is apparently to be pitied, but here in Ireland it's a "valuable social lifeline" etc.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122891400#Comment_122891400

Who says they are to be pitied ?

the beer revolu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122891400#Comment_122891400

Not sure where you get that from.

BeerNut

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122891384#Comment_122891384

There is definitely a daytime pensioner trade in The Silver Penny, and they seem to have adopted Jaipur as their go-to, though a fair amount of Coors pints too. I'm hoping it'll still be there in a couple of years when I'm eligible to join.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122891400#Comment_122891400

To be honest the impression I got was that a midday pint is an English inalienable rite.

Boris johnson delayed lockdown a week after most of Europe on the pretext of an Englishmans pub being a sacred place.

My favorite pub chain in England was Sam Smiths.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122891497#Comment_122891497

Pity that the owner of Sam Smiths is possibly a worse human being than the owner of Wetherspoons.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122891514#Comment_122891514

They had the nicest stout. After that the better option was always microbreweries which often worked out cheapest.

One I frequented specialized in pre wwi strong stouts

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122891417#Comment_122891417

Just the impression I got from

they'd have a lot more day time drinkers, pension pints in the large post industrial cities and towns 

techman1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122887108#Comment_122887108

How are wetherspoons in Northern Ireland doing I wonder, they have a very similar culture to us, well 50% of the population does anyway.

I think good value and prices is more highly valued in UK than here, maybe the higher welfare payments here mean that the focus on cheap prices is not as great. Maybe they should have went with a more "irish" flavour and naming of pubs rather than branding them exact same as UK ones

irish_goat

Wetherspoons in the north closed half of their venues about 8 years. They had 2 in Derry and I was surprised they sold both as they surely would have done ok if they'd kept at least 1 open. Tim has said they will come back to Derry if they find the right property, who knows when that might be though.

Belfast wise, I'd call into their pub the odd lunchtime or after work and it's always busy.

Black Sheep

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122891540#Comment_122891540

Sam Smiths do some great beer. Their organic lager is one of my absolute favourite beers ever. Glad that it is possible to buy it in the odd off-licence in Dublin (I get it in Martins, in Fairview).

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122891922#Comment_122891922

Quantify "value" ?

I don't think most Wetherspoons are good value. I also live in an area with very high social welfare numbers and from what I see those people are not going to the pub so it's not that they can afford the more expensive pubs.

the beer revolu

I'm reminded of the time when someone in Heineken Ireland got tired of all their other customers complaining about the prices Wetherspoon's were charging for their products and decided to announce that Heineken Ireland would no longer supply Witherspoon's in Ireland.

About ten minutes later Wetherspoon's announced that they were withdrawing Heineken products from its 900ish pubs in UK!

Subsequently, they kissed and made up but I always wondered if someone in Heineken Ireland lost their job over it.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122891726#Comment_122891726

Fair enough, a lot of post industrial England is fairly grim. You can tell how progressed the local demographics are by how many pub entrances have grab rails or mobility scooters parked outside.

There was even a chain around Liverpool called Pound Pub, like a pound shop but with really cheap drinks and allegedly edible food.

Blut2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122892059#Comment_122892059

When the Three Tun Tavern reopened as The Blackrock they had pints (and servings of spirits) of exactly the same drinks, in the exact same geographic location, in almost exactly the same interior design environment. But now for 200% the price.

TTT was quite obviously quantifiably good value in comparison.

BeerNut

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122895820#Comment_122895820

The draught beer range was very different, being that of a normal Irish pub. Guinness loyalists wouldn't consider €3 pints of Beamish to be quantifiably good value against a €6 pint of Guinness. They should, but they don't.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122895820#Comment_122895820

Looking at the photos I couldn't see myself drinking there under either version of the pub.

DelmarODonnell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122896077#Comment_122896077

I can confirm that the place probably looked a bit better as a Spoons. Was cheap and cheerful, especially if you were in with a group. Didn't have the feel of Ferry terminal like Dun Laoghaire either.

However saying that, the outside tables in Dun Laoghaire (upstairs and downstairs) are absolutely brilliant in Summer. Drinking €2.60 pints of Brehon IPA before a gig in July was surreal

Blut2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122896040#Comment_122896040

The range is different now absolutely, but there are still a very large number of beers and spirits that were on both menus. And are served identically. In an identical geographic location, in a building with a very similar interior decor. But just at a massively different price.

Those drinks serve as a very good quantifiable example of 'value' I'd say, which is what the poster I was replying to asked for.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122896995#Comment_122896995

Well it's possible that beer in that pub can be bad value no matter the price. As I said already it's a guess based on photos but there are pubs I would pay 6e in before I would pay 3e there. That's all assuming there is choice in the area.

In Ireland I only know the central Dublin and Cork Spoons and I wouldn't go near them with the alternatives around.

My only ever local Spoons was the Rockingham on Elephant and Castle roundabout. Seeing as all I ever done was sit outside on a park bench people watching or chatting to friends I would pick their park bench over the more than double priced neighbours.

Value for me isn't every really about the price of comparable drinks.

Marcusm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122886283#Comment_122886283

I worked in a bar in Drogheda for summers of 84-86; I would not be surprised if Holstein Pils had 20% of the bottled lager market.

Marcusm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122897088#Comment_122897088

Jaysus, you should have come and joined the rest of us at The Marigold at the TBR end of Bermondsey St, I found the Rockingham almost as scary as the Swan &Sugarloaf in south Croydon.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122915643#Comment_122915643

I remember it being students more than anything.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122915621#Comment_122915621

I remember it being on draught in the late 80s in nightclubs.

irish_goat

Holsten still available up north in Tesco. I'll have to grab some because I've never actually tried it, as far as I can remember.

Geuze

Do the six pubs in Dublin have a Jan sale?

Or does Irish legislation prevent price cutting?

BlueSkyDreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123049392#Comment_123049392

They are not allowed to reduce prices temporarily during the calendar day, but assume they can charge less than standard, as long as they maintain the reduced price for the whole day.

I guess they have to comply with MUP pricing also.

Dublin bars have cheap nights where its 2 or 3 euro a pint, so no reason Wetherspoons couldnt bring in the cheaper prices.

Has Keavans Port managed to reopen their beer garden?